Latest Issue of Review of Biblical Literature

The latest issue of Review of Biblical Literature is out. Reviews can be accessed by clicking the links below but unfortunately you must be a SBL member. 

Mark J. Boda, Michael H. Floyd, and Colin M. Toffelmire, eds.

The Book of the Twelve and the New Form Criticism
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11093
Reviewed by James M. Bos

Athalya Brenner-Idan and Archie Lee, eds.
Samuel, Kings and Chronicles I
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11578
Reviewed by John W. Herbst

Warren Carter
Telling Tales about Jesus: An Introduction to the New Testament Gospels
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11218
Reviewed by Marius J. Nel
Reviewed by Steven R. Shisley

Tat-siong Benny Liew and Erin Runions, eds.
Psychoanalytic Meditations between Marxist and Postcolonial Readings of the Bible
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11418
Reviewed by Rhiannon Graybill

Siobhán Dowling Long and John F. A. Sawyer
The Bible in Music: A Dictionary of Songs, Works, and More
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10778
Reviewed by James F. McGrath

Todd D. Still and David E. Wilhite, eds.
The Apostolic Fathers and Paul
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=11573
Reviewed by Christopher T. Holmes
Reviewed by H. H. Drake Williams III

Henry Wansbrough
Introducing the New Testament
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10286
Reviewed by Ken Olson

Archie T. Wright
The Origin of Evil Spirits: The Reception of Genesis 6:1–4 in Early Jewish Literature
http://www.bookreviews.org/bookdetail.asp?TitleId=10359
Reviewed by Michael B. Hundley

Grant Osborne on the Teacher as Pastor

Grant Osborne has some helpful advice or reminders about the role of the professor in the Bible college or seminary classroom here. Here is an excerpt.

"I have long felt that if all I was in the classroom was a disseminator of information, I would fail. The problem today is that the seminary (or college, or graduate school) classroom is often too academic, and too few students fall in love with the process of exegesis and feeding their flock—even looking upon the act of “feeding” in terms of delivering simple topical messages. We must show students the relevance of the biblical text for their lives, stimulating them spiritually as well as intellectually. The truth is that they can find everything we are going to say in commentaries and other sources. What we need to do is show them how practical and refreshing deep exegesis can be."

The Dating of Acts

This post, which is adapted from a course taught by Darrell Bock, covers the issue of the dating of Acts pretty well. 

Improving Your Speaking Skills

Although this post by Jason Shen is not specifically about teaching or preaching, there is some helpful advice about becoming a better speaker.

The Primacy of Peter

I do not hold to the primacy of Peter, at least in the Roman Catholic sense, or perhaps more accurately, the implications that they draw from it, namely, from the primacy to the papacy. But Dave Armstrong gives us fifty reasons supporting the primacy here and the twenty reasons he considers the best here. 

Writing Sermons with Integrity

Brad Whitt has a thoughtful and helpful post on avoiding sermon plagiarism here.

Journal of Biblical Literature 136:4

The latest volume of the Journal of Biblical Literature is now out. Here is a list of the articles with links to abstracts.

Creating a New “Great Divide”: The Exoticization of Ancient Culture in Some Recent Applications of Orality Studies to the Bible
Paul S. Evans
abstract

The Date of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4–5)
Nathan MacDonald
abstract

The Lists of Levitical Cities (Joshua 21, 1 Chronicles 6) and the Propagandistic Map for the Hasmonean Territorial Expansion
Yitzhak Lee-Sak
abstract

Hands, Heads, and Feet: Body Parts as Poetic Device in Judges 4–5
Karolien Vermeulen
abstract

“He Will Take the Best of Your Fields”: Royal Feasts and Rural Extraction
Gale A. Yee
abstract

Yahwistic Appropriation of Achaemenid Ideology and the Function of Nehemiah 9 in Ezra-Nehemiah
David Janzen
abstract

Job 2 and 42:7–10 as Narrative Bridge and Theological Pivot
Paul K.-K. Cho
abstract

[Hbl] as “Worthless” in Qoheleth: A Critique of Michael V. Fox’s “Absurd” Thesis
Mark Sneed
abstract

Naqia and Nineveh in Nahum: Ambiguity and the Prostitute Queen
Gregory D. Cook
abstract

A Newly Reconstructed Calendrical Scroll from Qumran in Cryptic Script
Eshbal Ratzon and Jonathan Ben-Dov
abstract

Jesus’s Question to Pilate in Mark 15:2
Jonathan Schwiebert
abstract

Slow Sailing in Acts: Suspense in the Final Sea Journey (Acts 27:1–28:15)
Troy M. Troftgruben
abstract

Is Every Sin outside the Body except Immoral Sex? Weighing Whether 1 Corinthians 6:18b Is Paul’s Statement or a Corinthian Slogan
Andrew David Naselli
abstract

James 3:13–4:10 and the Language of Envy in Proverbs 3
Benjamin Lappenga
abstract